Joe Cooper
2016-01-25 16:15:19 UTC
Since his profanity-laced 2011 speech in Las Vegas, Donald Trump has made
a campaign theme of calling the leadership in Washington stupid and
incompetent. In the most recent GOP debate, he again expressed his
anger at the incompetent people running the government. Those are great
applause lines with angry voters.
But Trumps frequent assessment of governmental incompetence as the cause
of Americas sad state should concern conservatives. The idea that
competence is the hallmark of good government comes from the so-called
progressive movement. Bring in better experts and smarter managers, the
thinking goes, and we will have better government. The Obama
administration and the GOP establishment share the attitude that an elite
class of experts can manage us better than we can manage ourselves. And
with the GOP establishment showing signs of warming to Trump as a way of
stopping the more conservative Ted Cruz, conservatives have begun to
seriously question Trumps conservatism. (Disclosure: I have endorsed Ted
Cruz.)
Few in the conservative movement would share Trumps assessment that the
nations disastrous course stems from managerial incompetence.
Conservatives largely view Obama, not as a bumbling incompetent, but as a
dedicated leftist who uses Alinskyite tactics to subvert the Constitution
that the left has long seen as a barrier to their socialist agenda. Obama
does not misunderstand the Constitution; he disdains its limits on
governmental power. If Hillary Clinton escapes indictment for her
mishandling of top-secret information, it will not be because Attorney
General Loretta Lynch is incompetent; it will be because the law does not
serve the lefts agenda.
To conservatives, our borders are not open because Obama and his allies
are too incompetent to secure them. Our open borders serve the lefts
internationalist goals, and they serve the lefts strategy of swamping
our political system with millions of leftist voters from the third
world. If illegals were likely to vote Republican, our borders would have
been secured on January 21, 2009.
Porous borders, unchecked federal power, and declining respect for
America abroad are not the blunders of incompetent managers; theyre
checkmarks on a leftist agenda that the Democrats have executed quite
well for decades.
And to movement conservatives, the problem with the Republican leadership
in Washington is not one of competence, but collusion. John Boehner,
Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan have skillfully used the labyrinthine
House and Senate rules to bring Obamas agenda to the floor and ensure
its passage while casting show votes against it for the rubes back home.
If they had wanted to gum the works for Obamas agenda as they have for
the conservative agenda, they had the competence to do it.
Trumps accusations of incompetence and stupidity are red meat for angry
voters who want to send Washington a message, but his diagnosis of
Americas ills is not that of a movement conservative.
That Trumps poll results are more about a message than a movement is
illustrated in his stunning boast in Sioux City on Saturday that he could
shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. He
is probably right. To Obamas radical transformation of America and the
soulless lets-make-a-deal attitude of the GOP, angry voters are
answering with a resounding screw both of you. Trumps lead so far is
based on his bold personality, not on conservative principle.
But now, as the time approaches for real voting that has real
consequences, conservative leaders many of them featured in a recent
special edition of National Review have begun to highlight Trumps past
support for liberal politicians and causes, and they are warning
conservatives that Trump is not one of us.
Now that Ted Cruz has emerged as the conservative challenger to Trump, it
is telling that the GOP establishment has warmed to Trump. Among other
establishment figures, Bob Dole who has endorsed Jeb Bush recently
told the New York Times that Trump would be a better choice than Cruz. He
went on to praise Trump as likely to work with Congress and lauded his
skills as a deal-maker.
And the GOP establishment is all about making deals.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with making deals. Dole told
a Wichita audience in 2014 that President Reagan had once told him that,
if you cant get everything, at least get me 70 percent, and well get
the rest next year. The problem for conservatives, however, is that the
GOP establishment has the Reagan rule backwards. Boehner gave Obama 70
percent of his agenda, and now it looks like Ryan will give him the rest.
Boehner, Ryan, and McConnell are competent deal-makers, but they are not
conservative deal-makers. Trump wrote the book on making deals, but he is
not a movement conservative.
And that is what has conservatives worried about Donald Trump.
Source: http://bit.ly/1Pg5j9c
--
Obama Nine Hours Before Paris Terror Attack: "We've Contained ISIS."
ISIS: "We've contained Obama."
"Never underestimate the willingness of white progressives to be offended
on behalf of people who arent and to impose their will on those who
didnt ask for it." (Derek Hunter)
"No doubt Hillary would like to call [Paula] Jones a liar, but Bill paid
Jones $850,000 to settle her sexual harassment suit. Can you imagine the
fun Donald Trump, for one, would have with that? Plus, it was Bill
Clinton, not Paula Jones, who was found by the presiding federal judge to
have committed perjury."--John Hinderaker
a campaign theme of calling the leadership in Washington stupid and
incompetent. In the most recent GOP debate, he again expressed his
anger at the incompetent people running the government. Those are great
applause lines with angry voters.
But Trumps frequent assessment of governmental incompetence as the cause
of Americas sad state should concern conservatives. The idea that
competence is the hallmark of good government comes from the so-called
progressive movement. Bring in better experts and smarter managers, the
thinking goes, and we will have better government. The Obama
administration and the GOP establishment share the attitude that an elite
class of experts can manage us better than we can manage ourselves. And
with the GOP establishment showing signs of warming to Trump as a way of
stopping the more conservative Ted Cruz, conservatives have begun to
seriously question Trumps conservatism. (Disclosure: I have endorsed Ted
Cruz.)
Few in the conservative movement would share Trumps assessment that the
nations disastrous course stems from managerial incompetence.
Conservatives largely view Obama, not as a bumbling incompetent, but as a
dedicated leftist who uses Alinskyite tactics to subvert the Constitution
that the left has long seen as a barrier to their socialist agenda. Obama
does not misunderstand the Constitution; he disdains its limits on
governmental power. If Hillary Clinton escapes indictment for her
mishandling of top-secret information, it will not be because Attorney
General Loretta Lynch is incompetent; it will be because the law does not
serve the lefts agenda.
To conservatives, our borders are not open because Obama and his allies
are too incompetent to secure them. Our open borders serve the lefts
internationalist goals, and they serve the lefts strategy of swamping
our political system with millions of leftist voters from the third
world. If illegals were likely to vote Republican, our borders would have
been secured on January 21, 2009.
Porous borders, unchecked federal power, and declining respect for
America abroad are not the blunders of incompetent managers; theyre
checkmarks on a leftist agenda that the Democrats have executed quite
well for decades.
And to movement conservatives, the problem with the Republican leadership
in Washington is not one of competence, but collusion. John Boehner,
Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan have skillfully used the labyrinthine
House and Senate rules to bring Obamas agenda to the floor and ensure
its passage while casting show votes against it for the rubes back home.
If they had wanted to gum the works for Obamas agenda as they have for
the conservative agenda, they had the competence to do it.
Trumps accusations of incompetence and stupidity are red meat for angry
voters who want to send Washington a message, but his diagnosis of
Americas ills is not that of a movement conservative.
That Trumps poll results are more about a message than a movement is
illustrated in his stunning boast in Sioux City on Saturday that he could
shoot somebody in the middle of Fifth Avenue and not lose any voters. He
is probably right. To Obamas radical transformation of America and the
soulless lets-make-a-deal attitude of the GOP, angry voters are
answering with a resounding screw both of you. Trumps lead so far is
based on his bold personality, not on conservative principle.
But now, as the time approaches for real voting that has real
consequences, conservative leaders many of them featured in a recent
special edition of National Review have begun to highlight Trumps past
support for liberal politicians and causes, and they are warning
conservatives that Trump is not one of us.
Now that Ted Cruz has emerged as the conservative challenger to Trump, it
is telling that the GOP establishment has warmed to Trump. Among other
establishment figures, Bob Dole who has endorsed Jeb Bush recently
told the New York Times that Trump would be a better choice than Cruz. He
went on to praise Trump as likely to work with Congress and lauded his
skills as a deal-maker.
And the GOP establishment is all about making deals.
Of course, there is nothing inherently wrong with making deals. Dole told
a Wichita audience in 2014 that President Reagan had once told him that,
if you cant get everything, at least get me 70 percent, and well get
the rest next year. The problem for conservatives, however, is that the
GOP establishment has the Reagan rule backwards. Boehner gave Obama 70
percent of his agenda, and now it looks like Ryan will give him the rest.
Boehner, Ryan, and McConnell are competent deal-makers, but they are not
conservative deal-makers. Trump wrote the book on making deals, but he is
not a movement conservative.
And that is what has conservatives worried about Donald Trump.
Source: http://bit.ly/1Pg5j9c
--
Obama Nine Hours Before Paris Terror Attack: "We've Contained ISIS."
ISIS: "We've contained Obama."
"Never underestimate the willingness of white progressives to be offended
on behalf of people who arent and to impose their will on those who
didnt ask for it." (Derek Hunter)
"No doubt Hillary would like to call [Paula] Jones a liar, but Bill paid
Jones $850,000 to settle her sexual harassment suit. Can you imagine the
fun Donald Trump, for one, would have with that? Plus, it was Bill
Clinton, not Paula Jones, who was found by the presiding federal judge to
have committed perjury."--John Hinderaker